As the retail industry has evolved into a “big box” model, the environment has moved away from being able to provide competent and personalized customer support. Due to competitive cost pressures, the retail staff in today's large retail stores is not well trained and must support a vast array of products. With high turnover of staff and limited training and product competency, customers have had to be more self-sufficient to select the appropriate products that fit their needs.
Complicating the retail sales process is that many products sold in retail environments have become increasingly sophisticated and complex. Today's “big box” electronics retailers stock thousands of different products in each store. Yet, in the face of ever increasing product complexity, the retailers rely on sales and customer service staff that receive limited product training and tend to “turn over” at a high annual rate. In many cases, retailers face fierce pricing pressures, forcing them to increase operational efficiencies and cut costs. Due to these pricing pressures, retailers often have a difficult time providing quality product information and sales support in their stores. Additionally, retailers have no way of identifying their prime customers when they walk in the door and no way to connect the customers to any concierge services for an improved shopping experience. The poor shopping experience can reduce customer spending, create an impaired customer experience, increase customer returns, raise product dissatisfaction, and motivate customer defection.
From a customer's perspective common issues include: 1) the customer is unable to get attention or service when he or she needs it; 2) the sales staff is not knowledgeable regarding the product(s) the customer wants; 3) the customer makes purchase decisions in a vacuum without assistance from sales staff or objective third parties; 4) the customer cannot locate the desired product in the store; and, 5) the customer's online shopping experience is disconnected from his or her in-store shopping experience. From the retailer's perspective, common issues include: 1) employee attrition is very high; 2) employees' sales effectiveness is constrained by limited experience; 3) training costs for products and services are high; 4) product training for staff is not always effective; 5) customers are often better informed than sales staff; 6) lost opportunities for sales of complementary products and services; and 7) a retailer's most valued customers are not “recognized” when they enter the store, and opportunities are lost to ensure a high quality shopping experience and repeat visits by those customers.
Attempts have been made to provide limited solutions to some of these issues by substituting mechanical “kiosks” for store personnel. The companies deploying customer kiosks focus on doing a few things very well and making the experience quick and convenient. Examples of kiosks dedicated to a specific use include ATMs, “pay at the pump” auto fuel facilities, and airline “check-in” modules. These kiosks have been successful in supplying convenient, focused service. In each instance, however, the automated kiosk service is limited to facilitating a transaction or completing part of a transaction that an individual customer has already decided to make. Kiosks are much less useful in providing information or services to an individual customer contemplating whether or not to make a purchase or what purchase to make. In some instances, customers have been slow to accept kiosks (for example, grocery store self serving check-out stations) where customers have a long-standing experience with the convenience of personal service.
Kiosks located in retail stores have also been created to provide general product information and sales help. However, these facilities have generally failed because the retail store kiosks are not well designed. Frequently, the retail store kiosks are placed in poor locations to prevent disruption of traffic patterns in key locations in the store. At times the retail store kiosks are underutilized or are inadequate to meet current customer demand. Many kiosks limit the customer to using self-help, i.e., customer initiated inquiries, to mechanically delivered, i.e., pre-recorded, information only. When the processes become more complex, and account information is incorporated, customers may believe they do not have sufficient privacy and that the kiosk hinders, rather than helps, the situation. Finally, many kiosks are not portable and are not usable in a store aisle where the customer has simultaneous access to the desired product or products. While some mobile applications, e.g., “smart screen shopping assistant,” are currently being developed for use by individual customers, they still suffer from many of the same deficiencies of stationary kiosks, i.e., limited flexibility and content.